Trump Headlined an Event by Moms for Liberty—a ‘Coalition Partner’ of Project 2025

Trump’s attempt to distance himself from the far-right playbook that promises to ban abortion and porn is going swimmingly. 

By Kylie Cheung  |  September 3, 2024 | 12:25pm
Photo: Getty Images Politics
Trump Headlined an Event by Moms for Liberty—a ‘Coalition Partner’ of Project 2025

Former President Trump and his campaign have been doing their utmost to performatively distance themselves from Project 2025, the far-right agenda for his hypothetical second presidency, spearheaded by the far-right Heritage Foundation. But suffice it to say, between one of the playbook’s co-authors recently saying that Trump “blessed” their work, and JD Vance writing the forward for the lead author’s forthcoming book, they haven’t been doing a great job. And on Friday, Trump headlined an event by a far-right group that’s a listed “coalition partner” of Project 2025. 

Moms for Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center recognizes as an “extremist” group for its attacks on civil and LGBTQ rights, held their annual summit in Washington D.C. over the weekend, with Trump appearing for a “fireside chat.” He rambled about his political opponents, attacked immigrants and queer people, and, at one particularly cursed moment, broke out into dance alongside Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, who then personally endorsed him.

Trump also called Kamala Harris a “Marxist” and a “defective person.” He then went on an almost comically delusional rant about schools supposedly forcing cisgender children to become trans: “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child and you know many of these childs [sic] 15 years later say, ‘What the hell happened? Who did this to me?’ They say, ‘Who did this to me?’ It’s incredible.” I’d fact-check that if only there were a single fact to check. Trump also inexplicably claimed his daughter, failed shoe mogul Ivanka Trump, is singlehandedly responsible for creating millions of jobs: “She would go around—not a glamorous job—but would go around to see Walmart, to see Exxon, to see all these big companies, to hire people, and she had hired, like, millions of people during the course of her stay.” It would be more believable if he claimed she went to these companies and turned their water into wine.

But it was Trump’s presence alone that spoke volumes. The Heritage Foundation is one of 10 sponsors of this year’s Moms for Liberty summit, per the Washington Post. This is on top of the organization’s partnership with Project 2025.

Project 2025’s sprawling 900 pages dictate how a Republican president could circumvent Congress and impose a national abortion ban, in addition to a house of horrors of other attacks on fundamental human rights and privacy rights. Earlier this year, Trump appointed Project 2025 writers and other Heritage Foundation leaders to write the Republican Party’s official 2024 platform. But since the Republican National Convention in July, Trump keeps insisting he has no ties to Project 2025, despite its co-authors including some of his close advisors as well as former Trump administration officials. By headlining a summit hosted by a Project 2025 “coalition partner,” Trump isn’t exactly helping his cause.

The fascist group, which was founded in 2021 shortly after Trump lost the presidency, has made a name for itself by advancing Trumpian values and extremism, particularly at the local level throughout the Biden era. Moms for Liberty famously weaponizes conservative parents’ outrage over parental rights to try to ban books in schools and terrorize queer and trans school children. These are the people who would be writing and enforcing the policies of a second Trump presidency.

 
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